Sunday morning political talk shows help set the agenda for debate in
Washington. Issues concerning corporate power directly impact peoples
lives, constitute substantive fodder for political discussion, and are
scintillating enough to attract large television audiences. However, this
quantitative study of four Sunday morning programs  Meet the
Press, The Mclaughlin Group, Face the Nation, This Week  demonstrates
that the shows avoid addressing issues related to corporate power.

An overwhelming majority of invited guests on the shows are lawmakers,
government officials, and politicians -- a skew that tends to reinforce
narrow parameters of discussion and exclude issues of corporate power.

Corporate influence over the networks, the shows and the guests in
part explains the remarkable omission of issues related to corporate
power. Multinational conglomerates own the networks, major corporations
sponsor specific shows, businesses regularly pay celebrity journalist
lecture fees, and massive corporations fund the campaigns of the guest
newsmakers.